It is known to attach a hood to a body of a vehicle with a hinge. In many vehicles, the hood hinge allows the hood to be selectively opened for access to an engine and other components in an engine compartment of the vehicle.
However, a hood that is attached with a conventional hinge has several disadvantages. For instance, if an object impacts the vehicle, that object may ultimately impact the hood. Kinetic energy of the object is likely to dissipate by indirect impact with the vehicle engine block, which is typically directly underneath the hood. Indirect impact with the engine in this manner is likely to harm the object. Therefore, a need developed for a hood that could move the hood away from the engine block during a collision such that an impacted object is more likely to deform the hood to dissipate kinetic energy.
Partially in response to this need, hood hinge assemblies have been developed that pivotally attach the hood to the vehicle and that may be deployed to move the hood away from the engine block. However, these hinges can move the hood substantially in the fore and aft direction instead of moving the hood more directly vertical away from the vehicle body. Furthermore, these hood hinge assemblies can be relatively unstable when deployed such that the hood moves in an undesired manner. Furthermore, these movable hinges can be bulky and therefore difficult to incorporate into a vehicle because they can interfere with other components.
Thus, it is desirable to provide an improved movable hinge that moves the hood in a substantially vertical direction away from the vehicle body. It is also desirable to provide a hood hinge assembly that is more stable during deployment. It is further desirable to provide a hood hinge assembly that is more compact. It is still further desirable to provide a hood hinge assembly that controls deployment vertically while still maintaining the rear hood lift path. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a hood hinge assembly that meets at least one of these desires.